Last night, in a packed Council Chamber, a representative of Costain was put on the spot by both Councillors and the public about the state of Victoria Park.

After a wide-ranging discussion of the various problems affecting the Park, which appear to be spreading beyond the Park's boundaries and possibly into nearby residents’ homes and the Nursery School, the Town Council resolved urgently to commission an independent survey to investigate the problems in the park.

Council Leader, Ifor Sheldon, said, "It is important that the people of Newbury have the opportunity to ask the questions that really matter to them.  We need to act quickly to resolve the problems, and an independent survey has to be the starting point."

The Bowls Club has also been badly affected.  Deputy Leader of the Council, Julian Swift-Hook, said, "The premier status of Newbury's historic bowls club is now threatened by the catastrophic damage that has been caused to the normally pristine playing surface.   I do hope the damage will not be permanent."

If Victoria Park is suffering from the loss of its accustomed ground water - what is happening under Northbrook St?

Problems? What problems?

I have lived just off victoria park for 30 years & you cannot blame this on the weather alone, i agree that we have had a very dry winter & hot summer but this is the worst case of drying out i have ever seen. i belive it is a factor of both dry weather & draining of the marsh. As for northbrook street i think we may yet still have problems. I have new cracks across my drive which were never there before this year.

Victoria Park looks no worse than City park to me.

Spending thousands of pounds of public money to find out we've had the driest year for eighty or so doesn't seem like a good use of public funds to me.

Quoted from user23.3

Spending thousands of pounds of public money to find out we've had the driest year for eighty or so doesn't seem like a good use of public funds to me.

What because it might prove that the pratts you work with shouldn't agreed to drain the water table.

I see you are scared that you and your colleagues will be found wanting again!!

May the redundancy list grow!

Quoted from Nobby

What because it might prove that the pratts you work with shouldn't agreed to drain the water table.

I see you are scared that you and your colleagues will be found wanting again!!

May the redundancy list grow!

As you obviously know what has caused the cracks I presume you are the independent surveyor, or if was caused by the lack of rain God.

Lets follow on from there then and make the whole of BP redundant, Vodafone had a few problems at their AGM - that's them gone - oh, and the government of course. :P

Quoted from user23.3

Spending thousands of pounds of public money to find out we've had the driest year for eighty or so doesn't seem like a good use of public funds to me.

While I think user23.3 is entitled to be sceptical, I disagree that it isn't good use of public money.  If things are discovered down the line, we might have a bigger bill and the developers, or whoever is responsible, will be long gone, as would any right to remedial action from them.

user23.3's statement, however, would seem to be in error, if the NWN report is to be believed.

"And MET Office spokeswoman Sarah Holland said provisional figures suggested that the district was drier last year.  “The provisional rainfall total for Berkshire and West Berkshire for January to June this year was 268mm, whereas last years' provisional rainfall total for the area for January to June was 256mm.” She said the figure for the same period in the notorious heat wave of 1976, was just 123mm. "

Rainfall figures alone are of no use.
When did the rain fall, what were the prevailing ground conditions when it did fall?
My guess is that most of the recorded precipitation for 2010 fell as snow, which tends to melt into surface drainage ( rivers streams etc ) as opposed to sinking into the ground & local water table.

Quoted from 78

Rainfall figures alone are of no use.  When did the rain fall, what were the prevailing ground conditions when it did fall?
My guess is that most of the recorded precipitation for 2010 fell as snow, which tends to melt into surface drainage ( rivers streams etc ) as opposed to sinking into the ground & local water table.

Is it a guess?

Rainfall is measured periodically, so your premise would be easy to judge.  What, however, do you think  the combined effects of low rain fall (is snow classed as rainfall?) and dewatering would be?

Rainfall is measured daily. At the Thatcham Weather centre to the end of June they had recorded 315mm of rain. Over half of this fell in Jan/Feb ( 160mm ). So, that gives 4 months with just 155mm of rain.
2009 by June there had been 297mm, 2008 = 558mm, 2007 = 508mm

OK, so how much of the previous years fall was snow?  On top of that, is your idea about snow draining correct?  Is snow calculated as rain? Presumably snow acts the same as heavy rain fall over a shorter period?  What we need to know then, is how many hours of rain have we had, rather than how much, assuming absorption is a constant?

I suspect what we have here though, is the perfect storm.  Low rain fall and dewatering.

There is a separate instrument for collecting snow, but to measure the amount which has fallen you melt the snow into water. TWC uses two rain gauges, so any snow falling in would be measured as rain.
Rain falling onto the dry hard ground we have now is going to flow away as surface water into the storm drains / rivers.  

The outdoor pool at Northcroft was shut several years ago because Thames water were taking so much water out of the Kennet. This had the effect of drying out the marsh on which the pool sits - the designers had used the back pressure from the water table to help support the pool walls - with a lower water table, cracks appeared.

Is there a log of the water table height?

When we had the hosepipe ban in 2006, it was the result of low water resources held naturally in aquifers. According to Thames Water, the period between November 2004 and January 2006 was the driest for more than 80 years, surpassing even the drought of 1974-76.

During this time, the well for the bowling green did not dry out and the surface of the park did not start to crack up.

As Thames Water does not contemplate a further ban this year, as far as I know, they must be satisfied that in the Thames Valley there must be sufficient resources underground in the aquifers. This in my book indicates that this drying out must be a localised problem.

Stand under the Parkway bridge on the Wharf side and you will see two black flexible pipes hanging down the pier and discharging water into the Kennet. It doesn't need a hydraulic engineer to guess that the volume of water being discharged must have an effect on the area.

I don't quite see why the Town Council should foot any bills for a survey. WBC should look to take on board the responsibility as they are, presumably, duty bound to ensure that Costain have not screwed up. That's sits, as far as I can see, directly in the remit of building control.